Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Chapter 2 

Planning Your CounterMarketing Program 

Planning is the foundation of your counter-marketing 

program. Although sound planning alone can’t guarantee 

success, it is a very important first step. 

Effective planning helps you clarify exactly which aspects of the problem of 

tobacco use your counter-marketing program can affect and how you can use 

resources most efficiently to make the greatest impact. Planning helps you set 

clear objectives that will enable you to select and prioritize activities. Not only 

does it guide program development, but it also helps you assess progress and 

make choices that will enhance your program’s chances for future success. 

Seven Steps for Planning 

This chapter describes the steps for planning your program (National Cancer 

Institute [NCI] 2002; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2003). 

Although these steps are described here in sequence, planning is an integrated, not a sequential, process. Become familiar with each of these steps before 

you start. Planning is also an iterative process; much of the planning you do 

will incorporate multiple steps at once or require making changes to steps on 

which you have already worked. 

In This Chapter


Seven Steps for 

Planning Your 

Counter-Marketing 

Program 

1. Describe the 

Problem 

2. Identify Target 

Audiences 

3. Draft Objectives 

4. Determine 

Approaches, 

Channels, and 

Program Strategies 

5. Consider 

Collaboration 

6. Plan for Process 

and Outcome 

Evaluation 

7. Begin Program 

Development 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 21 
Here are the seven essential 

steps for planning a countermarketing program: 

1. Describe the problem and identify 

how counter-marketing 

approaches can address it. 

2. Identify and learn about target


audiences.


3. Draft counter-marketing


objectives.


4. Determine counter-marketing 

approaches, channels (pathways), 

and program strategies. 

5. Consider collaboration. 

6. Plan for process and outcome


evaluation.


7. Begin counter-marketing program 

development. 

With so many demands on your time, you may 

be tempted to skip some steps, but thorough 

planning will be worth the time invested. A 

written plan will help you enlist the support of 

your organization’s management, partners, 

stakeholders, and funding sources, and to 

respond to critics by defending the choices you 

have made. 

The sample Counter-Marketing Strategic 

Planning Worksheet (Appendix 2.1) can help 

you begin. You also may want to review 

CDCynergy for Tobacco Prevention and Control, 

CDC’s CD-ROM-based planning tool that 

includes several tobacco-related case studies 

(CDC 2003). 

Step 1: Describe the problem and 

identify how counter-marketing 

approaches can address it. 

Before you start, review the tobacco control 

goal(s) your program will support. For example, if the overall tobacco control program will 

focus on adult smoking cessation, then your 

counter-marketing program shouldn’t address 

smoking cessation in youth. If the overall 

program goals are to increase adult smoking 

cessation and to decrease exposure to secondhand smoke, then you’ll need to develop 

counter-marketing plans to address each of 

these goals. 

1a. Describe the problem. 

Once you have verified the program’s overall 

goal(s), you can identify the specific problem 

or issue to address. Make sure that everyone 

agrees on what the problem is and that you 

have sufficient information to understand it 

and describe it. The amount of information 

needed to develop a description of the problem depends on factors such as the following: 

■	 How much experience your


organization has with the issue


■	 How much information is available on 

the issue in your area or in a similar locale 

■ How much research is needed to justify 

your decision to your organization and 

to potential critics of your program 

Be specific in describing the problem. The 

problem description should include: 

22 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

What Works? 

Counter-marketing programs with the following characteristics are more likely to succeed (Backer et al. 

1992; NCI 2002): 

■	

■	

■	

■	

■	

■	

■	

■	

■ Commitment over time. Successful programs commit to the long term, recognizing that changes in 

behavior take time. Initial indicators of progress don’t always mean that changes will be maintained. 

■ A focus on changing social norms. Over the long term, changes in social norms that demonstrate 

acceptance of the desired outcomes are true indicators of the program’s success. 

Specific outcomes. Program objectives should be clear and specific. General descriptions don’t 

provide enough direction for program design or evaluation. (See Step 3 for tips on developing 

objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound [SMART].) 

Multiple target audiences. Many outcomes involve multiple target audiences. For example, if 

prevention of smoking by adolescents is the goal, you may want to reach teens in different social 

or age groups, parents, and teen “influencers” (e.g., sports coaches or older siblings) with your 

program’s messages and interventions, assuming the budget is adequate to address all of them. 

Multiple tactics. Integrating multiple tactics (e.g., combining advertising with advocacy and media 

literacy) into a unified counter-marketing campaign can help a program address a problem in 

different ways and thus enhance its effectiveness. 

Multiple types of change. Many outcomes call for changes in individual behavior as well as other 

types of change (e.g., a shift in policy or environmental norms) that will support or contribute to 

behavior change. 

Messages that directly support intended changes. General awareness or prevention messages (e.g., 

“don’t smoke” or “smoking is harmful”) rarely are enough. Messages should be specific and should 

directly contribute to achieving the intended changes (e.g., encouraging people to call a quitline). 

Tailored messages and activities. Appropriate messages and activities are likely to differ for 

different target audiences and at different times in the program, depending on the perceptions, 

needs, interests, and behaviors of the audience. 

Formative research. Research to glean key insights about target audiences is essential to guide you 

in program design and to help you determine the most effective strategies, messages, and activities. 

Research is equally important for programs that target teens, adult smokers, policy makers, or any 

other targeted group. 

Consistency. Although the program’s messages and activities are tailored for each audience, they all 

must support strategies designed to reach the tobacco control program’s overall goals. 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 23 
■	

■	

■	

Who is affected and how 

The severity of the problem, along with 

data used to measure the severity 

Who can positively influence the


situation or the affected group


1b. Describe who is affected. 

If possible, describe subgroups that may be 

affected disproportionately by the problem. 

These subgroups should be sufficiently large 

and sufficiently different from one another and 

the general population to justify distinction. 

Subgroup descriptions can include: 

■	

■	

■	

Demographic information (e.g., age, 

gender, race/ethnicity, education, and 

family income) 

Geographic information (e.g., location 

of residence, school, and work) 

Psychographic information (e.g., 

attitudes, opinions, intentions, beliefs, 

and values) 

You should become familiar with sources of 

available data that can help describe the 

population, the severity of the problem, and 

the ways to measure change. (See Chapter 5: 

Evaluating the Success of Your CounterMarketing Program and the Resources section 

of this manual for more information.) Individuals in your state programs for chronic disease 

or health statistics or others with epidemiologic 

training or experience can help you find 

relevant data sources. Here are some examples: 

■	 Surgeon General’s reports 

■	 Behavioral surveys such as the national 

Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the Youth 

Tobacco Survey, and the Behavioral Risk 

Factor Surveillance System survey 

■	 Consensus statements and recommendations by national organizations, such 

as the tobacco cessation guidelines 

published by the Agency for Healthcare 

Research and Quality 

■	 Web sites that list sources of U.S. government information on tobacco control 

issues (e.g., http://www.healthfinder.gov 

and http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco) 

■	 Relevant qualitative and quantitative 

research that other states or organizations conducted in developing their 

programs 

■	 Database searches for journal articles and 

scientific reports (e.g., CDC/OSH’s 

Smoking and Health Database 

(http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/search/) 

and MEDLINE (http://medline.cos.com/) 

1c. Refine the problem statement. 

As additional information becomes available, 

refine your problem statement by adding more 

detailed descriptions of the subgroups affected. For example, if the original problem statement identified a higher rate of adolescent 

smokers in a certain city, further investigation 

may reveal that the smokers were 11th and 12th 

graders in inner-city schools. A review of the 

scientific literature and of successful tobacco 

control programs elsewhere may also reveal 

that their intentions to smoke were influenced 

by parents, athletic coaches, and peers. 

24 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

1d. Assess factors that can affect the 

campaign: strengths, weaknesses, 

opportunities, and threats (SWOTs). 

Before you progress too far in your planning, 

do a reality check. Assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOTs). 

First, ask yourself the following questions to 

determine whether your organization is ready 

to address the problem: 

■	 Does your organization have the


necessary authority or mandate? 


■	 Do you have or can you acquire the 

necessary expertise and resources? 

■	 Will you be duplicating the efforts 


of others?


■	 How much time do you have to address 

this issue? 

■	 What can you accomplish in that time? 

Then identify your assets and your barriers. 

Consider the following factors: 

■	

■	

■	

■	

Available resources, including funds, 

time, and personnel and their skills 

The level of your organization’s 

commitment to addressing the issue 

The roles of other concerned or involved 

groups and whether there is a gap, an 

opportunity for partnering, or potential 

overlap in areas being addressed 

Whether sound guidance is available to 

address the problem 

■ Political support for, resistance to, or 

potential criticism of efforts to address 

the problem 

■	

■	

Policies or lack of policies that can help 

or hinder your efforts 

Barriers to behavioral or environmental change or both, including 

activities of adversaries 

Also, ask what other states or organizations are 

doing to address the problem: 

■	

■	

■ From their perspective, what gaps 

exist in media coverage/advertising, 

community activities, materials, and 

target audiences? 

■	

What have they learned? 

Do they have information or advice to 

help you plan (e.g., advice about targeting, budgeting, and evaluating)? 

Are there opportunities for collaborative 

ventures, especially if key goals and 

target audiences are the same? 

Experienced colleagues and contacts at other 

state health departments can offer suggestions 

or advice as you conduct this assessment. In 

addition, CDC’s Web-based State Information 

Forum (http://ntcp.forum.cdc.gov) contains a 

large collection of state tobacco control documents that you might find useful. Keep all 

the information gained through this assessment in mind as you develop the countermarketing program. 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 25 
1e. Review relevant theories and 

models. 

Your program planning may be helped significantly by a review of theories and models that 

offer perspective on the target audiences and 

the steps that might influence them (NCI 

1995). Theories can help to explain why problems exist, what you need to know about the 

target audience, and what you need to do to 

influence change. Theories and models also 

can help guide you in choosing realistic 

objectives, determining effective strategies 

and messages, and designing an appropriate 

evaluation. No single theory dominates the 

design of a counter-marketing program, 

because issues, populations, cultures, contexts, 

and intended outcomes vary. Many programs 

are based on several theories. Best practices in 

counter-marketing are discussed in this 

manual. Table 2.1, from the National Cancer 

Institute’s Theory at a Glance: A Guide for 

Health Promotion Practice (NCI 1995), 

summarizes some key theories. 

Step 2: Identify and learn about 

target audiences. 

Understanding the target audience(s) before 

you plan and develop your program is essential. To be successful in influencing them, you 

will need to understand the problem and 

potential changes from the point of view of the 

target audience(s). Before you start to plan the 

program, define the audience you want to 

reach and the results you want to achieve and 

determine how to measure those results. (See 

Step 3 for information on defining objectives.) 

Also, find out about the target audience (e.g., 

lifestyle, attitudes, environment, culture, 

knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors), so you can 

plan appropriate activities while keeping an 

eye on your program objectives. 

In Step 1, you identified who was affected by 

the problem, but the people affected may 

constitute a broad population. One or several 

target audience(s) should be selected on the 

basis of shared characteristics. For example, if 

the problem you’re addressing is that more 

middle school students are starting to smoke 

cigarettes, you may want to target middle 

school students who are at risk of starting to 

smoke. 

If reliable data on a certain group are not available, you may need to conduct qualitative or 

quantitative research or both to learn enough 

to make sound planning decisions. For 

example, in Massachusetts, the prevalence of 

cigarette smoking was significantly higher 

among physically disabled individuals than 

among other groups, but other descriptive 

data were lacking, so the state conducted 

research to further understand this audience. 

(See Chapter 3: Gaining and Using Target 

Audience Insights for more information on 

conducting research.) 

In some cases, the target audience(s) may not 

be the affected population. Let’s say you want 

to decrease illegal tobacco sales to students. 

Your target audiences might be decision 

makers, such as school officials, who can set 

policies about tobacco use on or near school 

property; community opinion leaders, who 

can increase community interest in taking 

action to decrease illegal sales; and merchants, 

who control access to and availability of 

tobacco products. If you want to affect 

26 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Table 2.1: Summary of Theories: Focus and Key Concepts 

Theory Focus Key Concepts 

Individual Level 

Stages of Change 

Model 

Individuals’ readiness to change or attempt 

to change toward healthy behaviors 

• Precontemplation 

• Contemplation 

• Decision/determination 

• Action 

• Maintenance 

Health Belief Model Individuals’ perception of the threat of a 

health problem and the appraisal of recommended behavior(s) for preventing or 

managing the problem 

• Perceived susceptibility 

• Perceived severity 

• Perceived benefits of action 

• Perceived barriers to action 

• Cues to action 

• Self-efficacy 

Consumer 

Information 

Processing Model 

Process by which consumers acquire and 

use information in making decisions 

• Information processing 

• Information search 

• Decision rules/heuristics 

• Consumption and learning 

• Information environment 

Interpersonal Level 

Social Learning 

Theory 

Behavior explained via a three-way, dynamic 

reciprocal theory in which personal factors, 

environmental influences, and behavior 

continually interact 

• Behavioral capability 

• Reciprocal determinism 

• Expectations 

• Self-efficacy 

• Observational learning 

• Reinforcement 

Continues 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 27 
Table 2.1: Summary of Theories: Focus and Key Concepts (cont.) 

Theory Focus Key Concepts 

Community Level 

Community 

Organization 

Theories 

Emphasis of active community participation 

and development of communities that can 

better evaluate and solve health and social 

problems 

• Empowerment 

• Community competence 

• Participation and relevance 

• Issue selection 

• Critical consciousness 

Organizational 

Change Theory 

Processes and strategies for increasing the 

chances that healthy policies and programs 

will be adopted and maintained in formal 

organizations 

• Problem definition 

(awareness stage) 

• Initiation of action 

(adoption stage) 

• Implementation of change 

• Institutionalization of change 

Diffusion of 

Innovations Theory 

How new ideas, products, and social 

practices spread within a society or from 

one society to another 

• Relative advantage 

• Compatibility 

• Complexity 

• Trialability 

• Observability 

Source: NCI 1995 

pregnant women who smoke, you might target 

spouses or partners. Changing the behavior of 

their partners supports the pregnant women’s 

attempts to quit smoking and reduces their 

exposure to secondhand smoke. 

The more specifically you can target an 

audience, the more likely you are to develop 

approaches that will be appropriate to the 

audience’s interests and needs. For example, 

you wouldn’t target all middle school students 

in three counties if you could more specifically 

and appropriately target those most likely to 

smoke cigarettes, such as seventh and eighth 

graders whose parents smoke, who are less 

likely to be honor roll students, and who are 

more likely to be on their own in the afternoons. 

One exception to this rule may be the targeting 

of smokers for cessation. A recent global 

review of smoking cessation campaigns indicated that smokers who are targeted narrowly 

(e.g., those most ready to stop smoking) may 

mentally exclude themselves from the category and deny that the message is meant for 

them, because they know how difficult it can 

be to stop smoking. Programs found greater 

success in prompting smokers to call quitlines 

28 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

when all smokers were included in the 

message’s target. Also helpful were messages 

targeting smokers by undeniable characteristics, such as pregnancy or ethnic background (Schar and Gutierrez 2001). 

2a. Clearly define the audience you 

want to reach and the result to be 

achieved. 

Two steps that will help to set the parameters 

of your program are defining subgroups of an 

affected population sharing common 

characteristics (audience segmentation) and 

selecting one or more subgroups—your target 

audience(s). Because no one program can do 

everything for everyone, choosing a target 

audience provides a focus for the rest of your 

planning decisions. 

To select your target audience, review the 

following questions: 

■	

■	

■	

■	

■	

What is the problem? 

What is the solution or desired outcome? 

Who is most likely to be able to make 

the desired changes happen? 

How specifically can you describe this 

group or groups—the target 

audience(s)? 

How large is each group? (Each group 

should be large enough to make a 

difference in the problem but should not 

include so many types of people that you 

can’t tailor your efforts with enough 

specificity.) 

This review may leave you with many options. 

Answering the following questions will help 

you to prioritize the audience(s) for the 

campaign (CDC 2003): 

■	 Which audiences represent the highest 

priorities for reaching the key tobacco 

control goals? 

■	 Which audiences can be most easily 

reached and influenced? 

■	 Which audiences are affected disproportionately by the health problems 

associated with tobacco use? 

■	 Which audiences are large enough to 

justify intervention? 

■	 Which audiences are most unique 

and identifiable? 

■	 Which audiences are most vulnerable 

to the health problems? 

■	 In which audiences would countermarketing efforts duplicate the efforts 

of an existing program or campaign? 

■	 Which audiences, if any, have higher 

or lower priority because of political 

considerations? 

2b. Find out more about the 

target audiences. 

What “drives” the actions and behaviors of 

audience members, what interests and 

appeals to them, and where you can reach 

them are essential pieces of information for 

program design. Also, take the time to 

understand, not simply make assumptions 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 29 
about, cultural contexts that influence how 

target audiences live, perceive their environment, and make decisions. (See Chapter 4: 

Reaching Specific Populations for more 

information on these groups.) 

Chapter 3: Gaining and Using Target Audience 

Insights discusses a variety of methods for 

conducting market research to learn more 

about your audience(s). You’ll need to answer 

the following questions about the target 

audiences to plan an effective program: 

■	 What are the attitudes and beliefs of the 

target audience about problems and 

behavior associated with the tobacco 

control problem? Are there misconceptions that need to be corrected? 

■	 What other attitudes and beliefs could 

influence behavior related to tobacco 

use (e.g., perceptions of “cool” that 

include tobacco use, openness to 

seeking professional help for medical 

problems, and feelings about the importance of individual rights over group 

rights)? If tobacco use is perceived as 

beneficial, what barriers to change must 

be addressed? 

■	 Are there social, cultural, and economic 

factors to consider? For example, does a 

high percentage of the target audience 

report that it is difficult to turn down a 

cigarette offered at a party? Do some 

individuals use cigarettes as a positive 

symbol because of cultural beliefs and 

practices? Does the price of cigarettes 

influence the number of cigarettes 

smoked? Do some smokers find ways 

around pricing changes, such as stealing, getting cigarettes from friends and 

family, or buying “loosies” (single 

cigarettes typically sold at small 

convenience stores or on the street)? 

30 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

■	 Where can audience members be 

reached? In the community? In school? 

At home? Through television? Radio? 

Print? Interactive media? (It helps to 

know about a typical day in the life of 

an audience member.) 

■	 What are the audience’s preferences in 

terms of learning styles, appeals, language, and tone of messages? Some 

people learn through reading and 

contemplation; others prefer discussion. 

Some may be motivated by positive 

appeals; while others may be more 

influenced by fear and other negative 

emotions. For example, the promise of a 

healthy baby might motivate a pregnant 

woman to quit smoking, while the 

threat of serious heart disease might 

move a middle-aged man with 

borderline hypertension to quit. 

■	 What are the audience’s preferences 

in terms of activities, vehicles, and 

involvement in the issue of tobacco? 

Some smokers may prefer to quit on 

their own; others may welcome access 

to a quitline counselor. 

Your counter-marketing plan should include 

the following information about each of your 

target audiences: 

■	 Demographics (e.g., gender, age, 

educational attainment, occupation, 

income, family situation, and location 

of residence, work, and school) 

■	 Community norms and cultural and 

lifestyle characteristics (e.g., language 

preferences and proficiencies, religion, 

ethnicity, generational status, family 

structure, degree of acculturation, and 

lifestyle factors such as food and activity 

preferences) 

■	 Preferences, including places where they 

might be receptive to activities; media 

use; and types of messages, sources, or 

sponsors perceived as credible 

■	 Behaviors, knowledge, attitudes, values, 

and feelings that indicate the audience’s 

willingness to accept and act on the 

information provided (i.e., their 

readiness to change) 

Step 3: Draft counter-marketing 

objectives. 

Defining your counter-marketing objectives 

will help you to determine the messages you’ll 

use and to set priorities among possible strategies and activities. Your objectives serve as a 

kind of contract or agreement about your 

program’s purpose, and they establish the 

outcomes that should be measured. 

Objectives should reflect the results expected 

from the counter-marketing program within 

the given time frame and within the context of 

a comprehensive tobacco control program. In 

general, counter-marketing programs can: 

■	 Raise awareness about the problem of 

tobacco use and about the tobacco 

counter-marketing campaign 

■	 Build knowledge about the specifics of 

the issues associated with tobacco use 

and prevention 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 31 
■	 Shape or shift individual attitudes or 

values, contributing to behavior change 

■	 Change community norms 

■	 Result in simple actions (e.g., asking for 

help or information) 

■	 Win broad public support for tobacco 

control issues 

More specifically, counter-marketing activities 

designed to support health policy or enforcement of health-related laws, such as a ban on 

tobacco sales to minors, might be expected to: 

■	 Frame a health policy issue to make it 

relevant to more people 

■	 Reward retailers who refrain from 

selling tobacco products to minors 

■	 Increase support for a tobacco 


control policy 


Counter-marketing activities designed to 

support tobacco cessation or other tobaccorelated health services might be expected to: 

■	 Communicate the benefits of cessation 

or the risks of continuing to use tobacco 

■	 Increase support for coverage of 

smoking cessation programs under 

private and public insurance 

■	 Prompt use of population-based 

counseling services, such as quitlines 

Your objectives also should specify the impact 

you want the program to have on the tobaccorelated problem and should support your 

organization’s broader goals for tobacco 

control. You should write objective(s) that 

answer these questions: 

■	 What specific effect do you hope to 

have related to the tobacco problem, 

and among which affected or influential 

populations? 

■	 How much change do you expect? By 

when? (Include intermediate milestones 

that will help you identify progress.) 

Setting achievable objectives is important. 

Many efforts fail because of unreasonable 

objectives. For example, achieving anywhere 

near 100 percent change is generally impossible. If you plan to specify a numerical goal for 

a particular objective, an epidemiologist, 

statistician, or advertising or marketing expert 

can offer guidance on reasonable rates of 

change. (For example, commercial marketers 

often consider a 2- to 3-percent increase in 

sales to be a great success.) Also, you should 

bring your evaluator into the process when 

you are ready to draft objectives for the 

counter-marketing program. 

Don’t let fear of failure keep you from setting 

measurable or achievable objectives. Without 

them, you have no way of showing that you 

have succeeded or are making progress, which 

could reduce support for your program. 

Chapter 5 offers more information on 

developing objectives, but here are some 

SMART tips: 

■	 Specific. Be as specific as possible. For 

example, state that the program will 

“increase by 10 percent the number of 

health care providers who counsel 

pregnant women to quit smoking,” rather 

than stating that it will “increase smoking 

cessation among pregnant women.” Use 

specific verbs such as “improve,” “increase,” 

32 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

“promote,” “protect,” “minimize,” “prevent,” 

and “reduce” to describe objectives. 

■	 Measurable. Clear objectives (“increase 

by 25 percent”) will guide evaluation 

design and allow you to track progress. 

Also, determine how you’ll measure 

results. Will the measurement rely on 

existing data or will new sources of data 

be needed? 

■	 Achievable. Objectives should be 

realistic. Explore what degree of change 

is reasonable to expect within your 

program budget and your timeline for 

program implementation. 

■	 Relevant. Objectives should be related to 

your program’s overall goals and should 

be logical, based on what you plan to do. 

■	 Time-bound. Determine the time frame 

during which you expect certain 

changes to take place. 

An example of a SMART objective might be to 

increase by 20 percent the number of smokers 

who call the state quitline and attempt to stop 

smoking by the end of 2003. In addition to 

counter-marketing, other strategies and 

tobacco control activities conducted over a 

period of time are likely to be needed to 

change behaviors, policies, and social norms. 

Step 4: Determine countermarketing approaches, channels, 

and program strategies. 

Now you can begin to develop a detailed plan. 

Select which counter-marketing approaches 

and channels you’ll use; then define program 

strategies. Although these decisions are described here in sequence, they are interrelated. 

In most cases, these decisions will be made 

together, not sequentially. 

4a. Review and select the countermarketing approaches to use. 

Five counter-marketing approaches are 

described here: advertising, public relations, 

media advocacy, grassroots marketing, and 

media literacy. Most of this manual is devoted 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 33 
to helping you to plan and implement these 

specific counter-marketing tactics, and each 

one is discussed in detail in a separate chapter. 

Instead of jumping to conclusions about the 

approaches to use, consider which are most 

likely to help you reach your objectives. Here’s 

a quick look at these approaches, along with 

examples of what they can and can’t contribute 

to your counter-marketing program: 

■	 Advertising is a communication tactic in 

which messages are repeatedly delivered 

directly to a mass audience. Advertising 

permits control over the message’s tone, 

content, and amount of exposure. 

– 	

– 	

Advertising can communicate a 

single, simple message to many 

people, change attitudes, create an 

image for the campaign, and expose 

the practices of adversaries or 

competitors. 

Advertising can’t provide complex 

information, feedback, or services. 

■ Public relations is used to reach target 

audiences through “earned” media 

coverage—coverage of the program and 

issue generated through activities and 

relationships with reporters and other 

media gatekeepers. 

– 	Public relations can establish ongoing 

relationships with media, stakeholders, opinion leaders, and others; 

reach audiences with information and 

messages often seen as more credible 

than advertising; gain public support 

and create a positive environment for 

the program; expose the practices of 

adversaries or competitors; and 

provide a quick response to issues 

and events as they arise. 

– 	Public relations can’t guarantee a 

story’s placement, exposure, focus, 

slant, content, or accuracy. 

■	

–

–

■	

–

–

■	

Media advocacy is the strategic use of 

media and community advocacy to 

create social or policy change. 

 	Media advocacy can help communities create lasting environmental 

change. 

 M	 edia advocacy can’t guarantee individual behavior change based on new 

information. 

Grassroots marketing is used to involve 

people in the community as participants 

in a counter-marketing program. 

 	Grassroots marketing can get people 

in the community involved in the 

issue or program, create interpersonal 

exposure to the message, channel 

feed-back, and build community 

support. 

 	Grassroots marketing can’t be tightly 

controlled or expose a broad audience 

to a very specific message. 

Media literacy helps people ask questions about what they watch, see, and 

read. It helps them critically assess how 

the mass media normalize, glamorize, 

and create role models for unhealthy 

lifestyles and behavior. Also, it includes an 

examination of techniques, technologies, 

34 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

and institutions involved in media 

production. 

– 	Media literacy can help change 

attitudes, teach people to recognize 

how messages are used to influence 

them, and show them how to 

counteract those messages by 

developing their own messages. 

– 	Media literacy can’t change industry 

marketing practices or replace 

classes or programs that explain 

tobacco’s impact on health. 

Combining several approaches is usually 

better than using just one. Any approach you 

choose must fit into your broader strategy. The 

best advertising or public relations work won’t 

make up for a lack of strategy. The following 

questions can help you decide which 

approaches to use: 

■	 Which approach or combination of 

approaches best addresses the problem 

and your program objectives? 

■	 Which options are most appropriate for 

your target audience(s)? 

■	 Which approach(es) can your organization afford and successfully implement, 

taking into account the available skills, 

budget, and experience? 

■	 Could any of the approaches cause 

undesirable or unintended effects, such 

as public or political criticism? 

4b. Review and select the channels 

to use. 

Channels are pathways used to deliver program messages, materials, and activities to 

your target audience. Channels can be categorized into four broad groups: interpersonal, 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 35 
community and organizational, mass media, 

and interactive media channels. 

Interpersonal channels put health messages 

in a familiar context. Examples of interpersonal channels to reach intended audiences 

are physicians, friends and family members, 

counselors, parents, clergy, educators, and 

coaches. These channels are more likely to be 

trusted and influential than are mass media 

sources. Developing relationships with and 

creating messages and materials for interpersonal channels may take some time, but 

these channels are among the most effective, 

especially for affecting individual attitudes, 

skills, and behavior/behavioral intent. 

Influence through interpersonal contacts may 

work best when the person is already familiar 

with the message, for example, from hearing it 

through the mass media. Similarly, mass 

media approaches are most effective at 

changing behavior when they’re supplemented with interpersonal channels. 

Community and organizational channels can 

reinforce and expand on other media messages and add credibility and legitimacy. 

Community groups and organizations can 

disseminate your materials, hold events, and 

offer instruction related to your message. 

Establishing links with these groups can be a 

shortcut to developing interpersonal channels 

to your audience(s). Community and organizational channels, like interpersonal channels, 

can offer support for action and can function 

in two directions. They allow discussion and 

clarification, encouraging motivation, and 

reinforcing action. Community leaders can be 

effective channels, because they influence 

other people and can influence policy. They 

may include physicians and other health care 

professionals; religious, political, and social 

leaders; business and union leaders; and “rule 

makers,” who control the audience’s environment (e.g., teachers, parents, policy makers, 

and law enforcement personnel). Community 

leaders can disseminate messages broadly to 

groups or become part of an interpersonal 

channel. Also, garnering the support of many 

organizations that work together toward a 

common goal can create a “critical mass” 

resulting in a bandwagon effect for your efforts. 

Mass media channels offer many opportunities for dissemination of a message. Examples 

of mass media channels are radio, broadcast 

and cable TV, magazines, direct mail, billboards, and newspapers. The opportunities 

provided include mentions in news programs; 

entertainment programming (“entertainment 

education”); public affairs, “magazine,” and 

interview shows (e.g., radio call-in programs); 

live remote broadcasts; editorials on TV and 

radio and in newspapers and magazines; 

health and political columns in newspapers 

and magazines; posters; brochures; advertising; 

and public service campaigns. You may decide 

to use a variety of formats and media channels, 

but you should choose the ones that are most 

likely to effectively reach your audience(s). 

Mass media campaigns are a tried and true 

approach. They’ve been conducted on topics 

ranging from general health to specific diseases, from prevention to treatment. Overall, 

research has demonstrated that mass media 

approaches are effective in raising awareness, 

stimulating an audience to seek information 

36 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

and services, increasing knowledge, changing 

attitudes, and even achieving some change in 

behavioral intentions and behaviors (Snyder 

and Hamilton 2002). However, behavior 

change is usually associated with long-term, 

multiple-intervention campaigns, rather than 

with one-time, communication-only programs 

(Smith 2002). Mass media campaigns also can 

contribute to changes in social norms and to 

other collective changes (e.g., policy and 

environmental changes) (Hornik 2002). 

Interactive media channels are useful now 

and may have even greater reach in the future. 

Examples include Web sites, Internet bulletin 

boards, newsgroups, chat rooms, CD-ROMs, 

and kiosks). These media channels allow 

delivery of highly targeted messages to and 

feedback from the audience. Your program can 

use these media to send individual messages 

via e-mail (electronic mail) and post-program 

messages, such as information about healthrelated campaigns on popular Web sites, to 

create and display ads, to survey and gather 

information from computer users, to exchange 

ideas and ready-to-use materials with peers 

and partners, and to rally or demonstrate 

support for a policy or issue. Before choosing 

an interactive channel, you’ll need to determine whether it’s accessible and whether your 

audience is comfortable with it. 

To identify possible channels for reaching 

your audience, find answers to the following 

questions: 

■	 Where can you reach audience 

members (e.g., at home, at school or 

work, in the car, on the bus or train, or 

at a community event)? 

■	 When are they most likely to be 

attentive and open to your efforts? 

■	 Where can they act on your message? 

■	 In which places or situations will they 

find your messages most credible and 

influential? 

■	 Which places or situations are most 

appropriate for the counter-marketing 

approaches you are considering? 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 37 
The use of several channels has been 

most effective in producing desired 

results, including behavior change 

(NCI 2002). Using a combination of 

channels not only improves your 

chances of reaching more members 

of your audience(s), it also can 

increase the repetition of your 

message, which in turn increases the 

chance that the audience will be 

exposed to it often enough to internalize and act on it. Finally, some 

messages may seem more legitimate 

when they come from several sources or 

channels. 

Here are some tips for selecting channels to 

include in your program: 

■	 Choose channels that suit your objectives, and decide how the approaches 

described in this manual can be used 

with those channels. 

■	 Select channels and activities that fit 

your budget, time constraints, and 

resources. 

■	

physicians’ recommendations; and print 

ads may deliver a complex message 

better than TV can but may not be as 

engaging, because they lack action and 

sound. For these reasons, the best approach often is to use multiple channels 

to take advantage of the strengths of 

each channel. Table 2.2 lists some of the 

pros and cons of different channels. 

Consider the attributes and limitations 

of each type of channel. For example, 

electronic media can reach many people 

quickly to inform and create awareness, 

but they may not be as suitable as other 

channels for more complicated messages and purposes. The recommendations of physicians may be persuasive 

to smokers but may not reach many 

people; TV ads may reach many people 

but may not be as credible as 

4c. Draft program strategies. 

A strategy is the approach you plan to take with 

a specific audience. Although you may develop 

many different materials and use a variety of 

activities, your strategies are guiding principles 

for all your products and activities. 

The strategy includes everything you need to 

know to work with your audience. It defines the 

audience, states the action audience members 

should take, tells how they will benefit (from 

their perspective, not necessarily from a public 

health perspective), and explains how you can 

reach them. The strategy is based on knowledge 

38 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Table 2.2: Counter-Marketing Channels and Activities: Pros and Cons 

Channel Activities Pros Cons 

Interpersonal 

• Influential adults 

• Health care 

providers 

• Family members 

• Friends 

• Hotline counseling 

• Patient counseling 

• Instruction 

• Prompted, informal 

discussion 

• Can be credible 

• Permit two-way 

discussion 

• Can be motivational, 

influential, supportive 

• Most effective for 

teaching and helping/ 

caring 

• Can be expensive 

• Can be time consuming 

• Can have limited reach of 

intended audience 

• Can be difficult to develop; 

sources need to be convinced and taught about 

the message themselves 

Organizational and Community 

• Schools 

• Employers 

• Community 

groups 

• Town hall and other 

events 

• Organizational 

meetings and 

conferences 

• Workplace 

campaigns 

• Media literacy 

• May be familiar, 

trusted, and influential 

• May provide more 

motivation or support 

than media alone 

• Can sometimes be 

inexpensive 

• Can offer shared 

experiences 

• Can reach larger 

audience in one place 

• Can be time consuming to 

establish 

• May not provide personalized attention 

• Organizational constraints 

may require message 

approval 

• Control of messages may be 

lost if they are adapted to fit 

organizational needs 

Mass Media 

• Newspaper • Ads (paid or public 

service) 

• News 

• Feature stories 

• Letters to the editor 

• Op-ed pieces 

• Can reach broad 

audiences rapidly 

• Can convey health 

news/breakthroughs 

more thoroughly than 

TV or radio and faster 

than magazines 

• Audience has chance to 

clip, reread, contemplate, 

and pass along material 

• Small papers may take 

print public service 

announcements (PSAs) 

• Coverage demands a 

newsworthy item 

• PSA placement virtually 

nonexistent 

• Exposure usually limited 

to one day 

Continues 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 39 
Table 2.2: Counter-Marketing Channels and Activities: Pros and Cons (cont.) 

Channel Activities Pros Cons 

Mass Media (cont.) 

• Radio • Ads (paid or public 

service) 

• News 

• Public affairs/ 

interview shows 

• Dramatic programming (entertainment 

education) 

• Range of formats 

available to intended 

audiences with known 

listening preferences 

• Opportunity for direct 

audience involvement 

(through call-in shows 

and remotes) 

• Can use ad scripts 

(called “live-copy ads”), 

which are flexible and 

inexpensive 

• Paid ads or specific 

programming can reach 

intended audience 

when they are most 

receptive 

• Paid ads are relatively 

inexpensive 

• Ad production costs are 

low relative to TV 

• Ads’ message and 

execution can be 

controlled 

• Reaches fewer people than 

TV 

• Although cheaper than TV 

ads, paid ads still may be too 

expensive 

• PSA placement runs 

infrequently and at low 

listening times 

• Feature placement requires 

contacts and may be time 

consuming 

• Many stations have limited 

formats that may not be 

conducive to health 

messages 

• Difficult for audiences to 

retain or pass on material 

• Stations consolidating; fewer 

local choices 

• Televison • Ads (paid or public 

service) 

• News 

• Public affairs/interview 

shows 

• Dramatic programming (entertainment 

education) 

• Potentially the largest 

and widest range of 

audiences 

• Visual combined with 

audio good for emotional appeals and 

demonstrating 

behaviors 

• Can reach low-income 

audiences 

• Ads are typically expensive 

to produce 

• Paid advertising may be too 

expensive 

• PSA placement may run 

infrequently and at low 

viewing times 

• Feature placement requires 

contacts and may be time 

consuming 

40 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

Table 2.2: Counter-Marketing Channels and Activities: Pros and Cons (cont.) 

Channel Activities Pros Cons 

Mass Media (cont.) 

• Paid ads or specific 

programming can reach 

intended audience when 

they are most receptive 

• Ads’ message and execution can be controlled 

• Opportunity for direct 

audience involvement 

(through call-in shows) 

• Message may be obscured 

by commercial clutter 

• Increased channel options 

have fragmented audiences 

(some channels reach very 

small audiences) 

• Promotion can result in 

huge demand 

• Can be difficult for audiences to retain or pass on 

material 

Interactive Media 

• Internet • Web sites 

• E-mail lists 

• Chat rooms 

• News groups 

• Ads (paid or public 

service) 

• Can reach large numbers 

of people rapidly 

• Information can be 

instantaneously updated 

and disseminated 

• Information can be 

controlled 

• Can reach specific 

audiences and provide 

personalized information 

• Can be interactive and 

engaging 

• Can provide health information in a graphically 

appealing way 

• Can combine the audio 

and/or visual benefits of 

TV or radio with the selfpacing benefits of print 

media 

• Can use banner ads to 

direct audience to your 

Web site 

• Can be expensive 

• Many audiences may not 

have access to the Internet 

or skills to use it 

• Audience must be proactive; 

they must search or sign up 

for information 

• News groups and chat 

rooms may require 

monitoring 

• Can require maintenance 

over time 

• Thousands of healthoriented Web sites and 

listservs exist, so size of 

audience may be small 

• Users typically scan Web 

sites quickly and may not 

attend to health messages 

This table was adapted from NCI 2002. 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 41 
of the audience, guided by market research and 

theories and models of behavior, and tempered 

by the realities of organization roles, resources, 

and deadlines. 

You’ll need to develop a strategy statement 

that translates this information into a cohesive 

document articulating what you’ll do, and 

you’ll need to ensure that all key decision 

makers agree with it. You may be tempted to 

skip this step. Don’t skip it. Having an 

approved strategy statement will save you time 

and effort later. Developing the statement 

provides a good test of whether there’s enough 

information to begin developing messages. It 

offers an opportunity to convince your 

organization and partners to buy into your 

program. The statement also can serve as the 

guideline for all your materials and activities. 

At this stage in the planning process, you 

should involve experts in advertising, media 

advocacy, marketing, or related fields, depending on the approaches you’ve selected. If you’re 

working with partners, they might be a part of 

this program design team. Evaluation experts, 

if they aren’t already involved, also should join 

the team at this point. 

This stage also is a good time to do another 

reality check. As you develop your strategy, 

make sure you have the budget and other 

resources to include all the approaches and 

channels you have identified. It’s better to limit 

your activities and do fewer things well than to 

stretch modest resources across many strategies and targets. Think for the long term: you 

may want to start with one target audience and 

one approach and add program components 

in future years. After several years, you can 

have a comprehensive program in place. 

For each of your target audiences, write a 

strategy statement that includes the following 

elements: 

■	 Target audience profile. The description 

will be most useful if you describe one 

person in the audience, rather than 

describing the group. The information 

you gathered in Step 2 should be used 

here. 

■	 Action you want the audience to take as 

a result of exposure to your program. 

The action should be based on the 

objectives you drafted in Step 3. 

■	 Obstacles to taking action. Common 

obstacles include audience beliefs, 

social norms, time or peer pressures, 

costs, ingrained habits, misinformation, 

and lack of access to products, services, 

or program activities. The additional 

information you gathered about the 

audience in Step 2 should help you 

identify obstacles. 

■	 Benefit the audience will perceive as 

sufficiently valuable to motivate them 

to take action. Many theories and 

models of behavior change suggest that 

people take action or change their behavior because they expect to receive some 

benefit (e.g., have more energy, save 

money, live longer, or gain acceptance 

from peers) that outweighs the cost (e.g., 

time, money, or potential loss of stature 

among peers). 

42 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

■	 Reason(s) the benefit and the audience’s ability to attain the benefit 

should be credible and important to 

the audience (sometimes called the 

“reason to believe”). Support can be 

provided through hard data, peer 

testimonials about success or satisfaction, demonstrations of how to 

perform the action (if audience 

members doubt their ability), or 

statements from people or organizations the audience finds credible. 

Support should be tailored to the 

concerns of audience members about 

the action. For example, if they are 

worried that they can’t act as recommended, a demonstration of the 

behavior may give them the confidence 

to act. If they question why they should 

take the action or whether it will have 

the promised health benefit, hard data 

or statements from credible people or 

organizations may be effective. If they 

don’t believe they need to take the 

action, a peer testimonial may make 

them reconsider. 

■	 Channels and activities that will reach 

audience members. 

■	 The image you plan to convey through 

the tone, look, and feel of messages and 

materials. You should convey an image 

that convinces audience members that 

the communication is directed at them 

and that it’s culturally appropriate. 

Image is conveyed largely through 

creative details. For example, printed 

materials convey image through typeface, layout, visuals, color, language, and 

paper stock. Audio materials convey 

image through voices, language, and 

music. In addition, video materials 

convey image through visuals, the 

actors’ characteristics (e.g., clothing and 

accessories), camera angles, and editing. 

Developing a strategy is usually an iterative 

process; as you learn more about one element, 

other elements may need to be adjusted. 

4d. Develop a logic model. 

A logic model describes the sequence of events 

that will occur to bring about the change 

(objective) you have identified. This model is 

often designed as a flowchart (see Figure 2.1). 

A logic model is valuable because it accomplishes several purposes: 

■	 Summarizes program components and 

outcomes at a glance 

■	 Can display the infrastructure needed to 

support the program 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 43 
Figure 2.1: Example of Logic Model for One 

Component of Youth Tobacco Use Prevention 

Advertising Campaign 

Input 

Funds for paid media 

Activity 

Design industry manipulation ad 

Output 

Industry manipulation ad is aired on the 

stations and at the time to reach youth; 

youth potentially exposed 

Short-Term Outcome 

Youth report awareness of the specific ad 

and react positively to it 

Intermediate Outcome 

Youth are more likely to believe that 

tobacco companies try to get people to smoke 

and less likely to believe smoking is cool 

Long-Term Outcome 

Fewer youth report trying 

cigarette smoking 

■	 Forces you to describe what you’re


planning in a simple way


■	 Reveals any gaps in the logic behind 

your plans 

■	 Describes what will happen over the 

course of your program, which will be 

useful for working with stakeholders, 

partners, and evaluators 

If you’ve identified several objectives and 

target audiences, you may need to develop 

several logic models. Chapter 5: Evaluating the 

Success of Your Counter-Marketing Program 

offers a more detailed look at logic models, but 

basically, your logic model(s) should include: 

■	 Inputs—what is necessary to conduct 

the program (e.g., trained staff and 

materials) 

■	 Activities—what you will do (e.g., 

provide media-literacy training or hold 

press conferences) 

■	 Outputs—what will happen as a result 

of activities (e.g., messages in the media 

as a result of public relations initiatives) 

■	 Outcomes—short-term results (e.g., 

changes in teens’ attitudes about tobacco 

advertising) and long-term results (e.g., 

lower youth smoking initiation rates) 

Step 5: Consider collaboration. 

Working with other organizations can be a costeffective way to enhance your program’s credibility and reach. Many public health agencies seek 

partner organizations to serve as gatekeepers to 

reach target audiences. Think about partnerships 

with businesses, other government agencies, 

volunteer and professional organizations, 

44 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

schools and community groups, the mass 

media, or health-related institutions. These 

organizations can help you by providing: 

■	 Access to a target audience 

■	 Enhanced credibility for your message 

or program, because the audience 

considers the organizations to be a 

trusted source 

■	 Additional resources, either financial 

or in-kind resources (e.g., volunteers, 

meeting space, and airtime) 

■	 Added expertise (e.g., training


capabilities)


■	 Cosponsorship of events 

First, you’ll need to weigh the pros and cons to 

decide whether you want to collaborate. If you 

decide to find partners, you’ll need to consider 

what types of partners you want. 

5a. Decide whether to collaborate. 

In determining whether to recruit partners, 

consider these questions: 

■	 Which organizations have similar goals 

and might be willing to work with you? 

■	 Which types of partnerships would help 

to achieve the objectives? 

■	 How many partners would your program need? You might want to partner 

with one or a few organizations for 

specific projects, or you may need to 

rally the support of many organizations. 

■	 Will the collaboration compromise 

your message? 

Although working with other organizations 

and agencies can greatly enhance what you 

can accomplish, be realistic about the potential disadvantages of collaboration. Working 

with other organizations can: 

■	 Be time consuming. You’ll have to 

identify the organizations, persuade 

them to work with you, gain internal 

approvals, and coordinate planning, 

training, or both. 

■	 Require altering the program. Every 

organization has different priorities 

and perspectives, and partners may 

want to make minor or major program 

changes to accommodate their structure 

or needs. 

■	 Result in loss of ownership and control 

of the program. Other organizations 

may change the schedule, functions, or 

even the messages and take credit for 

the program. 

Decide in advance how much flexibility you 

can give partners without violating your program’s integrity and direction and your own 

organizational procedures. 

5b. Consider criteria for partner 

participation. 

Once you’ve decided to partner with other 

organizations, you should be selective in 

choosing partners. Consider which organizations meet the following criteria: 

■	 Would best reach your audience(s) 

■	 Are likely to have the most credibility 

and influence with your audience(s) 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 45 
■	 Would be easiest to persuade to work 

with you (e.g., organizations where you 

have a contact) 

■	 Would require less support or fewer 

resources from you 

Health care companies and other for-profit 

organizations may be willing to work with you 

even if their products or services aren’t related 

to your program. They may view partnering 

with your program as a way to provide a useful 

public service, improve their corporate image 

and credibility, or attract the attention of a 

particular sector of the public. You must 

consider whether a collaboration of this type 

will add value or jeopardize the credibility of 

your program. 

Step 6: Plan for process and 

outcome evaluation. 

Evaluation is crucial for showing funding 

sources, partners, supporters, and critics what 

you’ve achieved. Even though most evaluation 

occurs later, you must plan for it at an early 

stage, to ensure that you have the budget and 

infrastructure to gather and analyze the information you’ll use (CDC 1999). In addition, 

you’ll probably want to conduct a baseline 

study of the target audiences’ current awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. 

Planning for the baseline study must be done 

early enough to implement the research before 

the campaign begins. You’ll be able to determine the progress of the campaign by comparing its results with information from the 

baseline study. 

Work with your evaluation experts on 

evaluation plans. If they have participated in 

the program planning, they will better understand what you’re trying to do. Evaluation 

experts can help to plan an appropriate 

evaluation and to make decisions about data 

collection methods and analysis. (See Chapter 

5: Evaluating the Success of Your CounterMarketing Program for more information on 

planning for process and outcome evaluation.) 

Your objectives and logic model for the countermarketing program form the basis for design 

of the evaluation. A good evaluation plan 

should include both process and outcome 

measures: 

■	 Process evaluation shows whether your 

program’s components and flow of 

activities worked the way you planned. 

Process evaluation can help to identify 

any problems with implementing the 

program as designed. 

■	 Outcome evaluation shows whether you 

met your program objectives. 

Including both types of evaluation will provide 

a comprehensive “picture” of what happened 

and why. 

As you plan for evaluation, keep these tips 

in mind: 

■	 Make sure your evaluation design is 

appropriate for the particular activity. 

Experimental designs are the gold 

standard of outcome evaluation. In 

experimental design, a treatment 

group (people exposed to the program) 

46 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

is compared with a control group 

(people who aren’t exposed). However, 

this type of design often can’t be used to 

assess counter-marketing activities, 

largely because untreated control groups 

may not exist for statewide or communitybased efforts. Even if people aren’t 

exposed to your activities, they are likely 

to be exposed to some communication or 

other intervention on the topic. Other 

options include quasi-experimental, 

cross-sectional, and case study designs. 

(See Chapter 5: Evaluating the Success of 

Your Counter-Marketing Program for 

discussion of these and other types of 

design for evaluation.) 

■	 Consider how the activities are expected 

to work and the time frame. Then make 

sure the activities are evaluated according 

to those expectations. For example, if you 

expect people to need at least five to eight 

exposures to your message before they’ll 

take action, you must allow sufficient 

implementation time to achieve that level 

of exposure. If you expect people to take 

action immediately after exposure, then 

the outcome measurement should take 

place soon after exposure. Conversely, if 

you don’t expect to see program effects 

for at least one year, outcomes shouldn’t 

be measured until then. 

■	 Include process measures and milestones. This will allow you to assess 

progress and to determine whether you 

need to make any changes in the 

program’s implementation. 

■	 Determine the kind of evidence needed 

for the outcome evaluation. One example is information for a report to your 

funding agency or partners. 

■	 Consider the baseline measures you 

have available or can collect and how 

you’ll track changes related to desired 

outcomes. Determine how you will 

collect data and how often. 

■	 Measure change against the program’s 

specific objectives. These objectives 

should be consistent with, but may not 

be identical to, your organization’s 

general tobacco control goal. 

■	 Avoid having your program deemed a 

failure because it doesn’t achieve sufficient reach, frequency, or duration. Two 

possible causes of such a failure, real or 

apparent, are that activities aren’t funded 

adequately or that they begin later than 

expected and aren’t in place long enough 

before outcomes are measured. Process 

evaluation can track the level of intensity 

and the duration of exposure to the 

message and can help you learn why 

expected outcomes did or didn’t occur. 

6a. Write questions about the program 

that you want the evaluation to answer. 

Planning for evaluation includes developing 

questions that you want the evaluation to answer 

about the implementation and outcomes of your 

program. Determine which key measures will be 

necessary to demonstrate to key decision makers, 

funding sources, other stakeholders, staff, and the 

public at large that the program is making 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 47 
progress toward its objectives. Questions may 

include the following: 

■	 Did your counter-marketing program 

achieve the outcomes you expected 

(e.g., increased awareness of program 

messages and changes in knowledge, 

beliefs, and attitudes)? 

■	 What did target audiences think of your 

program? Did they become involved? 

Did it affect them in some way? 

■	 Did partners contribute as expected? 

Why or why not? How might these 

partners want to work with you in the 

future? 

■	 Did you have an adequate level of 

resources? Did you schedule enough 

time for program development and 

implementation? 

6b. Design the evaluation. 

To decide on the appropriate evaluation 

design, you’ll need to consider the 

following questions: 

■	 Which evaluation questions are most 

important? (You may have to decide 

which ones you can realistically answer.) 

■	 What information will you need to 

answer each evaluation question? 

■	 How will you gather the information? 

■	 How will you analyze it? 

By now, you may be thinking that good 

evaluation is beyond your capacity. It’s true 

that evaluation can be complex and costly, but 

it also can be relatively simple and inexpensive. Look at what other states have done and 

what might be useful in supporting future 

efforts. Also, examine the evaluation designs 

others have used and borrow what you can. 

Ask others what worked for them and what 

changes they’d make in future evaluation 

designs. 

In addition to designing the program evaluation, you’ll need to plan to pretest messages 

and materials. (See Chapter 3: Gaining and 

Using Target Audience Insights for more 

information.) You also may want to consider 

conducting a pilot test for your program. In a 

pilot test, you run and evaluate your program 

in a limited area for a limited time, then make 

adjustments based on the test results, before 

expanding the program. Consider pilot testing 

if your program meets the following criteria: 

■	 Designed as a new type of program for 

your organization 

■	 Intended to become a large investment 

■	 Planned to cover many communities 

■	 Expected to continue over several years 

Step 7: Begin counter-marketing 

program development. 

Now you’re ready to start putting the pieces 

together. Program development and management are discussed more fully in Chapter 6: 

Managing and Implementing Your CounterMarketing Program, but here are some key 

points: 

■	 Develop a communication plan that 

includes all the elements of your planning. It should be used to explain your 

48 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 
Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter-Marketing Campaign 

plans to those within your organization 

and to others; support and justify budget 

requests; provide a record of where you 

began; and show the program’s planned 

evolution. Some sections of the plan, 

such as implementation and process 

evaluation, may not be as detailed as 

others at this point. But you can always 

update the plan later. 

■	 Add a budget and a timeline that lists and 

assigns tasks and identifies deadlines. 

■	 Find out more about similar programs in 

other states and how you may be able to 

use their “lessons learned” and any 

messages and materials they’ve 

developed. 

■	 Conduct any market research needed to 

understand more about your target 

audience’s culture, motivations, interests, 

and lifestyle. 

■	 Begin to develop program activities. 

(See Chapter 7: Advertising, Chapter 8: 

Public Relations, Chapter 9: Media 

Advocacy, Chapter 10: Grassroots 

Marketing, and Chapter 11: Media 

Literacy for guidance.) 

■	 Plan for testing messages, developing 

materials, organizing activities, negotiating partner roles, and conducting a 

program review for stakeholders. 

The timeline should include every imaginable 

major task from the time you write the plan 

until the time you intend to complete the 

program. The more tasks you build into the 

timetable, the more likely you’ll be to remember 

to assign the work and stay on schedule. Also, 

detailing the tasks will make it easier to determine who’s responsible for completing tasks 

and what resources will be required. The 

timeline is a flexible management tool. You 

may want to review and update it regularly 

(e.g., once a month), so you can use it to help 

manage and track progress. Computer-based 

tools, such as project management software, 

can be especially useful for this task. 

Points To Remember 

■	 Effective planning will help you: 

– 	 Better understand the tobacco control issue you’re addressing 

– 	 Identify the most appropriate approaches to bring about or support change 

– 	 Create a counter-marketing program that supports clearly defined objectives 

■	 Your counter-marketing program plan should complement the broader tobacco 

control effort and overall plan. 

■	 Many of the planning activities in this chapter can be completed simultaneously. 

■	 A plan is a living document. As the program progresses, review the plan to clarify 

and revise it as needed. 

■	 Be prepared to evaluate what you do. 

Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program 49 
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50 Chapter 2: Planning Your Counter-Marketing Program